Kaech'ŏn Detention Center

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Korean spelling
Korean alphabet : 개천 제 14 호 관리소
Hanja : 价 川 第 十四 號 管理所
Revised Romanization : Gaecheon Je14ho Gwalliso
McCune-Reischauer : Kaechŏn Che14ho Kwalliso

The internment camp Kaech'ŏn (mostly Kaechon , rarely also Gaecheon ) is an internment camp in North Korea for political prisoners . The official name is Kwan-li-so (prison camp) No. 14 . It should not be confused with the Kaechon re-education camp (Kyo-hwa-so No. 1), about 20 kilometers northwest of it .

location

Kaech'ŏn Internment Camp (North Korea)
Pyongyang
Pyongyang
Kaech'ŏn
Kaech'ŏn
Kaech'ŏn Detention Center in North Korea

The camp is located in Kaech'ŏn County, P'yŏngan-namdo Province in North Korea . It extends in the valley of the Taedong River , which forms the southern boundary, and also includes the mountains north of the river, including Mount Purok-san. South of the Taedong River is the Bukchang Penal Camp (Kwan-li-so No. 18).

description

The Kaechon camp is designed as a lifelong penal colony from which no releases are planned. Politically unreliable people are deported there without a trial and live there in complete isolation from the outside world. The warehouse covers an area of ​​around 155 square kilometers. It has separate areas with shared barracks for men, women and older children, as well as an area for the administration and accommodation of the guards. A total of around 15,000 prisoners live in the Kaechon camp.

function

The purpose of the camp is to lock up people classified as "politically unreliable" for life using their labor. The work is done with rudimentary means in mines , as well as in agriculture and animal husbandry .

Human rights situation

According to eyewitness reports, the prisoners are obliged to work in mines and other workplaces every day from 5 a.m. to midnight. The detainees do not have the right to speak and must strictly adhere to the camp rules. Violations are punished with torture or, in the case of serious violations, for example attempting to escape , theft or disregard of orders, with death . Insufficient food rations are given. Most inmates die of malnutrition (around 40% according to Amnesty International estimates), illness, accidents at work or as a result of torture. There have even been reports of prisoners eating rats, snakes, insects, or frogs to survive.

This article or section needs revision: Partial revocation by Shin Dong-hyuk .
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Former prisoner Shin Dong-hyuk reported on human rights violations that he himself suffered or observed in Kaechon camp:

  • After his mother and brother tried to escape, he was locked in a small underground cell for seven months, where he could not stand up straight or stretched out, and was tortured there.
  • Shin described how he was tortured when he was 14 years old. He was completely stripped, his hands and legs cuffed, and he was hung from the ceiling of the cell. Then a fire was lit under his back and a sharp hook was drilled into his skin to prevent him from moving. He still has scars from burns and other injuries inflicted on him in the camp.
  • Shin was later forced to watch the public execution of his mother Jang Hye Gyung by hanging and his brother Shin He Geun by shooting from the front row.
  • When Shin was working at the clothing factory and accidentally dropped a sewing machine, the foreman hacked off his middle finger between his knuckles as punishment.
  • Shin said he witnessed dozens of public executions each year. Another detainee, Kim Yong, has attended around 25 executions in his section (the Mujin 2 mine).
  • Shin watched a six-year-old girl get hit so hard at his school for stealing a few kernels of corn that she died shortly afterwards.
  • When Shin was 12 years old, he was separated from his mother and was rarely allowed to see her. Instead of going to school, the children had to do fieldwork and other hard physical labor.
  • Between the ages of 13-16, Shin had to do dangerous construction work and saw many children of the same age die in work-related accidents. Some days four or five children were killed, and one day eight people died.
  • Shin's cousin was raped by security guards and died shortly afterwards. When the girl's mother complained loudly, she disappeared and Shin never saw her again.
  • Shin saw twelve inmates given poisoned water to wash, become very sick a week later, and then disappear.
  • When Shin escaped through the high-voltage electric fence, his friend Park Yong-chul was electrocuted.

Prisoners (eyewitnesses)

  • Kim Yong (1995–1996 in Kaech'ŏn, later in Pukchang) was imprisoned after his (previously veiled) relatives to his father and brother, who were executed as alleged US spies, came out.
  • Shin Dong-hyuk (1982–2005 in Kaech'ŏn) was born in the camp. His father was there because relatives had fled to South Korea during the Korean War.

See also

literature

Movie

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Hidden Gulag - Satellite imagery: Kwan-li-so No. 14 Kaechon and Kwan-li-so No. 18 Bukchang Partial Overview (page 209). (PDF; 5.5 MB) The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, accessed on September 21, 2012 .
  2. ^ Internet portal Swiss Christians: Escaped from Hell, November 21, 2008
  3. ↑ Article "North Korea's Hard Labor Camps" with Interactive Map, Washington Post, July 20, 2009
  4. ↑ The Hidden Gulag - Satellite imagery: Kwan-li-so No. 14 Kaechon Headquarters (page 211). (PDF; 5.5 MB) The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, accessed on September 21, 2012 .
  5. ^ The Hidden Gulag: Kwan-li-so Political Panel Labor Colonies (section: Testimony Kwan-li-so No. 14 Kaechon) (pp. 48-52). (PDF; 5.5 MB) The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, accessed on September 21, 2012 .
  6. ↑ The Hidden Gulag: Kwan-li-so Political Panel Labor Colonies (section: Testimony Kwan-li-so No. 14 Kaechon) (page 48). (PDF; 5.5 MB) The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, accessed on September 21, 2012 .
  7. ↑ My mother is executed. Yet I am not sad. Daily NK , July 3, 2007, accessed May 3, 2012 .
  8. ↑ MEPs hear reports on the human rights situation in North Korea. European Parliament, April 13, 2012, accessed May 3, 2012 .
  9. ^ Political Prison Camps in North Korea Today . Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB), 2011, ISBN 978-89-93739-16-9 , pp. 260-269 (English, digitized ( Memento of 28 February 2013, Internet Archive ) [PDF; 3.6 MB ; accessed on December 12, 2018]). Political Prison Camps in North Korea Today ( Memento of the original from February 28, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / nkdb.org
  10. ^ A Glimpse of Horror. Radio Free Asia, December 1, 2008, accessed May 3, 2012 .
  11. ^ Political Prison Camps in North Korea Today . Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB), 2011, ISBN 978-89-93739-16-9 , pp. 353-357 (English, digitized ( Memento of 28 February 2013, Internet Archive ) [PDF; 3.6 MB ; accessed on December 12, 2018]). Political Prison Camps in North Korea Today ( Memento of the original from February 28, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / nkdb.org
  12. ^ A b c d North Korea: Political Prison Camps. (PDF; 93 kB) Amnesty International, May 4, 2011, accessed on May 3, 2012 (English).
  13. ↑ a b c d How one man escaped from a North Korean prison camp. The Guardian, March 16, 2010, accessed May 3, 2012 .
  14. ↑ Thousands of Dead - Secret Torture Camps in North Korea. Focus, April 13, 2012, accessed May 3, 2012 .
  15. ^ Born and Raised in a North Korean Prison Camp. ABC News, October 30, 2007, accessed May 3, 2012 .
  16. ^ Medical Report and History of Shin Dong-hyuk. Life Funds for North Korean Refugees, July 9, 2007, accessed May 3, 2012 .
  17. ^ Born and raised in a North Korean gulag (p. 1). The New York Times, July 9, 2007, accessed May 3, 2012 .
  18. ^ Escape From "Total Control Zone", North Korea's Papillon. Daily NK , May 11, 2007, accessed May 3, 2012 .
  19. ↑ Escapee Tells of Horrors in North Korean Prison Camp. Washington Post, December 11, 2008, accessed May 3, 2012 .
  20. ↑ Tortured, sexually abused, executed. Die Welt, April 11, 2012, accessed May 3, 2012 .
  21. ^ The Hidden Gulag - Exposing Crimes against Humanity in North Korea's Vast Prison System (pp. 51-52). (PDF; 5.5 MB) The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, accessed on September 21, 2012 .
  22. ^ Born and raised in a North Korean gulag (p. 2). The New York Times, July 9, 2007, accessed May 3, 2012 .
  23. ^ A b I was a Political Prisoner at Birth in North Korea. Life Funds for North Korean Refugees, accessed May 3, 2012 .
  24. ↑ Shin Dong-Hyuk escaped North Korea's concentration camp hell. Image, March 30, 2012, accessed May 3, 2012 .
  25. ↑ The Hidden Gulag: Kwan-li-so Political Panel Labor Colonies (section: Testimony Kwan-li-so No. 14 Kaechon) (pp. 51-52). (PDF; 5.5 MB) The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, accessed on September 21, 2012 .
  26. ↑ Article “As a 14-year-old Shin had to watch his mother being hanged”, Basler Zeitung, May 29, 2009
  27. ^ Camp 14 - Total Control Zone. Engstfeldfilm, accessed on May 3, 2012 .
  28. ↑ Hans-Jörg Rother: Homicide every day , Tagesspiegel , March 4, 2014

Coordinates: 39 ° 34 ′ 15.9 ″  N , 126 ° 3 ′ 19.7 ″  E